As an example of image recording apparatuses such as various types of printers or facsimile machines, JP-A-2006-273567 (FIGS. 4 to 11) discloses an image recording apparatus in which sheets (recording media or cut sheets) stacked substantially horizontally are placed on a placing portion of a first sheet feeding cassette (a main cassette) disposed at the lower portion in a body (housing) of the apparatus. A second sheet feeding cassette (an auxiliary sheet feeding cassette) serving as a sub-cassette is disposed above the placing portion movable back and forth with respect to the first sheet feeding cassette. Small-sized sheets are stacked on a placing portion of the second sheet feeding cassette.
On the main unit side, a common feed roller is disposed near an inclined separation portion at the front of the first sheet feeding cassette on the upper-surface side thereof. A sheet fed by the common feed roller is upwardly guided at the inclined separation portion, is then conveyed to the undersurface of a recording head (recording unit) via a curved conveying path with substantially U-shape (when viewed from cross section) and which is disposed above the inclined separation portion, is then subjected to a recording operation, and is discharged toward the front of the apparatus body.
In this apparatus, the second sheet feeding cassette is moved back and forth to select the first sheet feeding cassette or the second sheet feeding cassette from which sheets are conveyed one by one toward the recording unit by means of the common feed roller.
The second sheet feeding cassette additionally has a discharged-sheet receiving portion disposed reward the sheet-setting portion. The placing portion of the first sheet feeding cassette includes rear-end and side-end guide members that are movably disposed and determine the position in which a large-sized sheet is set. The sheet-setting portion of the second sheet feeding cassette has rear-end and side-end guide members that are movably disposed and determine the position in which a small-sized sheet is set.